Seeing how much trouble Evelyn had staying focused, Hope decided to take care of the situation.
She grabbed Evelyn in her arms and jumped to the first floor without any difficult doing so, demonstrating the actual force she had all along.
The heavy robot on the rooftop detected the sound of the fall and immediately began to blast the ceiling with what sounded like a Gatling piercing it until it reached the second floor.
'Hope, I wanted to tell you that the skills I gave you are enough to take care of this threat so you don't have to be tense.'
'Amy, do you really think I can fight firearms barehanded?'
'Well, technically no. But by using a diversion this strategy seems plausible. At least in theory.'
'Theories make me sceptical Amy, you might have to out-done yourself for once,' Hope released Evelyn to the ground who rapidly went for her backpack.
As the robot was inspecting every single room on the second floor without results, it decided to return to the roof to check its surroundings.
"Do you have something I can use as a weapon?" Hope murmured.
Evelyn went in her garage which door was open and came back, a crowbar in her hand which she threw at Hope who caught it mid-air.
She then showed Hope a small ball in her backpack.
The ball was made out of metal pieces welded together and a thin wick was sticking out of the top of it.
Both understood the assignment as they were glaring at one another.
Evelyn went as silently as possible to her keys and unlocked the back door of the house whereas Hope climbed a few steps of the stairs to try locating the sentinel.
As Hope continued to climb each step with the less amount of pressure to avoid making them creak, she saw an imposing figure protruding from the gigantic hole in the roof.
It was a large and thick centaur equipped on its arm with a machine gun whose devastating power left no doubt considering the damage done to the roof.
Hope looked at Evelyn in front of the back door by the small angle through the bars of the staircase.
She gave her a thumbs-up as a sign to launch her home-made grenade.
On her side, Evelyn saw Hope's sign and lighted the wick with a lighter she had in her tiny black backpack.
She then opened the door slightly and threw the ball at good distance from her position in the garden.
'Ready Hope?'
Hope smiled. 'I've always been Amy'
The sentinel was distracted by the grenade which wick had almost vanished when it exploded creating a heavy blast and dense red smoke setting fire to what little grass there was in the backyard.
The detonation occurring, Hope clenched the crowbar in her hands and ran towards the sentinel jumping more than three meters high and reached the back of that robotic centaur.
'Do you see a weak point anywhere Amy?'
'I'm searching, try to scan the robot so I can analyse it better.'
'You're almost useless sometimes you know...'
The sentinel was completely caught off guard and rotated at high speed its upper torso to try and make Hope release her grip but its opponent was stronger than it expected and the woman did not give up that easily.
Therefore, the robot jumped off the roof on the cloud of smoke which was blocking Hope's view.
In the meantime, Evelyn ran to the kitchen where she left her futuristic revolver.
She opened a small compartment on the handle of the revolver and placed some sort of electrical recharge inside it.
Once loaded, she returned to the back door checking the surroundings but she heard that the sentinel and Hope were in the smoke created by the grenade so she aimed and maintained her position for when the smoke would disappear.
'Could you do some think for my vision like last time Amy?'
'Allow me to search...'
The sentinel stopped moving, its torso and arms facing Hope. 'We're out of time Amy!'
'Transferring Infrared Vision To Hope Subject. Done.'
When Hope regained vision, the only thing she saw was the Gatling attached to the sentinel arm spinning and about to shoot.
She quickly protected herself from the burst of fire by going under the sentinel.
The robot could have damaged itself by shooting at Hope but its thick white exoskeleton was firearm resistant.
Moreover, the sentinel's back kept a large shield which it took in its regular left hand as it heard the sound of a laser shoot charging.
Now facing Evelyn, the sentinel placed its shield to defend itself and also preparing to shoot with its machine gun on the right of it.
However, the robot completely forgot for a few second that Hope was present under it.
'Breach detected Hope, you can pierce its exoskeleton its underside with the crowbar. Transferring Data...'
'I have something to do first,' Hope exit from under the robot to its right.
The blonde woman then pulled the machine gun down to the ground as it started to shoot.
Everything that Evelyn saw was the trajectory of the bullets strafing the ground in an arc just in front of her feet which made her take a few steps back out of fear.
However, she recovered and aimed with her revolver to the cloud of red smoke now less dense letting the silhouette of the sentinel appears.
Suddenly, the three-meter-tall centaur stopped shooting, the sound of the machine gun vanishing in the smoke. The scene looked like absolutely everything had been paused.
Evelyn stood there, not knowing what to do but that is when a familiar figure emerged from the smoke which had now almost disappear into the air.
"Hope! You're alive!!"
Evelyn was going to aim down her revolver until new vibrations were felt from the ground.
Hope looked on the roof so Evelyn began to aim directly at the sky, still in front of the back door of her house.
When she did so, a sentinel was falling from the roof to the garden but Evelyn reacted fast enough and shot a thin beam with her revolver making the large robot exploded in the air which was now falling to the ground in fire and a huge hole in its abdomen.
'Have you spotted another one in the neighbourhood Amy?'
'I think that it was the last one for the moment,' Amy appeared smiling at Hope.
Hope then joined Evelyn passing near the sentinel which had been shot and noted that the robot was completely destroyed.
However, Evelyn's response to her assaulting and defeating a sentinel was not what she expected her to do. "Back off Hope! I won't repeat myself this time," Evelyn pointed her revolver directly at Hope.
Hope felt almost like crying. "Why? What did I do for you to aim at me with that gun, huh?"
"Do you seriously thought that a human can handle a sentinel by himself. Don't be ridiculous, that's impossible which means that you're an AI," Evelyn shouted.
"But you were there to help me," Hope kneeled, "What do you expect me to say exactly, Evelyn?"
"Nothing. I have enough evidence in front of me right now."
The sound of the recharging revolver was louder and louder.
"But I'm still a human though! You even checked my heartbeats and my temperature earlier. And now you want to tell me that I cannot be human because I destroyed a sentinel?"
Evelyn remained silent and continued to aimed at Hope but, as it was about to shoot, she put away her gun.
Even dropping it, she walked over to Hope before kneeling down and hugging her with tears in her red eyes.
"Sorry Hope, this isn't what I wanted but this apocalyptic world drives me crazy. I've had enough of it. I'm sorry Hope, so sorry," Evelyn tightened her hug.
At this moment, Hope could not resist any more and started crying with Evelyn for several minutes as she too hugged Evelyn.
"You even have bigger boobs than I. This world truly is unfair," Evelyn chuckled releasing her grip.
"But to me, you're the prettiest girl I know," Hope smiled.
"Thanks Hope..."
"You still don't want to form a team with me now?" Hope laughed.
Evelyn got up and held out her hand to Hope. "You're lucky I wish to have someone as unique as you in my group," She laughed too.
"And about your house?" Hope raised an eyebrow.
"We will have to left it. My home isn't a safe place any more..." Evelyn went to grab her gun on the ground, "Come on Hope. We have to prepare ourselves to move and I'll need your help for that."
Hope also got up. "Coming!"
The house was in an indescribable mess but fortunately, the candles did not set the house on fire as most of them were extinguished.
As Hope was entering the house, Evelyn gave her a lighted candle. "Follow me, we have a lot to do."
"OK, no problem my friend."
Both went in the garage where a hatch on the ground was leading to a tiny basement.
Before Hope could do anything, she was hit by a large grey backpack.
"You see the wooden shelf over there?" Evelyn asked entering the tiny basement.
"Yes!"
"Take as much food and water as possible then we will eat a part of what will have to stay here. On my side, I'm preparing my stuff."
"Your stuff?"
Evelyn's voice was resonating in the basement to the garage.
"You might not know it but I'm a kind of mechanician or even an engineer if we are creative. Therefore, I need to have my tools near me every time."
"Is it that much important for you to have those?" Hope almost finished selecting their food with Amy's help.
Finally, Evelyn got out of the basement. "In this world, it is necessary to have a job. Otherwise, you won't be able to exchange your services for supplies."
"You mean you have a real job. So cool!!"
"Anyway, are you done with our supplies?"
"Yes ma'am!"
Evelyn laughed. "Could you attach the tent to the backpack which is on the workshop behind you, please?"
"We will camp outside?"
"That's not like we have a choice either. We currently have no shelter for the night and the sun is almost set so we cannot afford to lose time looking for one but I think I have an idea."
Hope nodded and brought back two can of corn as well as two bottles of water for their little dinner before they leave Evelyn's house.
As they started eating the maize grains, Hope was thinking about those two sentinels.
"Do you have an idea of what the sentinels were doing in the area?"
Evelyn pointed Hope with her silver fork. "That's my fault for setting a fire in daytime. They technically didn't know that we were there so it's obviously because they were scouting for me."
"Why did you do it then?"
"As I said when we were at the park, it was supposed to be a bait to take down some robots in a first time and then, on a second time, to mislead them into thinking that a group is at New Kroy"
Hope drank a bit of water, nodding to whatever Evelyn was saying. "Misleading them? What do you mean?"
"To protect safe-zones from being discovered. Those are essential for our survival as they are the only places where you can grow your own food and have a bit of a normal life, like it used to be before the Zero-day."
Hope finished her can. "I wonder what a normal life is?"
"It certainly is better than this life if you want to know..." Evelyn sighed.
As they finished eating, they made the inventory of what they should take to travel.
Evelyn took her tools as well as her revolver while Hope took the large grey backpack filled with the supplies.
Hope and Evelyn were now standing outside in front of the two sentinels in the garden.
"Alright, let's head to the North," Evelyn showed a direction on her right.
"And where are we going to?"
Evelyn was somehow happy to announce it. "We're going to B-1! Otherwise known as Karkaly, The Northern Bastion." She smiled.